Stupid class!
Time for a rant post!
Today's edition of Engineering 211 (Conservation Principles; basically Physics) was about typical and exemplifies the situation that's going on in there. It's a 2-hour class that's 2 days a week and is 3 credit hours.
Our professor began by announcing that he would extend the homework because he was unavailable for questions that afternoon. Then one of the students asked if Dr. Overglay* could work a problem from the previous homework. He admitted that he hadn't worked "that one" but said he would do it. Well, it was about 4:20. He started working. He drew it, wrote down some equations, and stared at it.
And he stared.
About an hour later, when most of the class had either left or solely been surfing on the internet, I decided that I had had enough. Because this was typical of him, I predicted, "He's going to keep working on it for most of the class, and then fail. He's then going to try to work some of this week's homework and before he finished, class will be over."
And then I left.
After I got back to my dorm, I IM'd someone in class to ask if he was still working on it. About 30 minutes after I had left, I received an affirmative response. A few minutes after that, after he had been working on the problem for an hour and a half, I was told that he gave up. There were only about 15 minutes left in the class for him to "teach." At this point, my contact in the class left, so I don't know what happened after that. I'm sure nothing did.
But anyway, this level of incompetence really shouldn't be acceptable. This is one of the professors who requires that one of the books a student gets for class is authored by him (the book does have two co-authors, I'll give him that). Pah! It's a good thing that some of this stuff is of tolerable difficulty (along the level of the most difficult Physics II problems, though some random, harder stuff).
I had once compared him to Mrs. Alkerway* in that he really didn't do much teaching but occasionally worked assignments. Well, I take that back. Mrs. Alkerway* knew what she was doing and had worked out every assignment that she had given us. She was also available to work out stuff with us in class. Although Dr. Overglay does have office hours, I have to admit that I've never asked him for help with problems (frankly because I don't think he would be able to do them). Perhaps I'm guilty for that. But whatever.
I still plan on skipping most of that class every day (though I do have to show up to turn homework in). Unless he teaches something.
*names "changed" to protect from Google
Today's edition of Engineering 211 (Conservation Principles; basically Physics) was about typical and exemplifies the situation that's going on in there. It's a 2-hour class that's 2 days a week and is 3 credit hours.
Our professor began by announcing that he would extend the homework because he was unavailable for questions that afternoon. Then one of the students asked if Dr. Overglay* could work a problem from the previous homework. He admitted that he hadn't worked "that one" but said he would do it. Well, it was about 4:20. He started working. He drew it, wrote down some equations, and stared at it.
And he stared.
About an hour later, when most of the class had either left or solely been surfing on the internet, I decided that I had had enough. Because this was typical of him, I predicted, "He's going to keep working on it for most of the class, and then fail. He's then going to try to work some of this week's homework and before he finished, class will be over."
And then I left.
After I got back to my dorm, I IM'd someone in class to ask if he was still working on it. About 30 minutes after I had left, I received an affirmative response. A few minutes after that, after he had been working on the problem for an hour and a half, I was told that he gave up. There were only about 15 minutes left in the class for him to "teach." At this point, my contact in the class left, so I don't know what happened after that. I'm sure nothing did.
But anyway, this level of incompetence really shouldn't be acceptable. This is one of the professors who requires that one of the books a student gets for class is authored by him (the book does have two co-authors, I'll give him that). Pah! It's a good thing that some of this stuff is of tolerable difficulty (along the level of the most difficult Physics II problems, though some random, harder stuff).
I had once compared him to Mrs. Alkerway* in that he really didn't do much teaching but occasionally worked assignments. Well, I take that back. Mrs. Alkerway* knew what she was doing and had worked out every assignment that she had given us. She was also available to work out stuff with us in class. Although Dr. Overglay does have office hours, I have to admit that I've never asked him for help with problems (frankly because I don't think he would be able to do them). Perhaps I'm guilty for that. But whatever.
I still plan on skipping most of that class every day (though I do have to show up to turn homework in). Unless he teaches something.
*names "changed" to protect from Google
posted by Seth at 10/27/2003 07:17:00 PM
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